1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to musical instruments, more specifically, the invention is directed to a drum pedal having a sensor for detecting movement of the pedal to create an output signal for use with digital and/or analog devices.
2. Background of the Invention
Drummers typically use a pedal to strike a bass drum or the like. A bass drum pedal is operated by depressing a foot board and causing a beater to hit the surface of a drum. When the foot board is depressed, a drive assembly causes the beater to strike the drum. When the foot board is released, the beater returns to a ready position, ready for the next beat.
It may be desirable to record or sample beater strikes in order to convert these strikes to output a signal to a drum brain and eventually to an amplifier, a MIDI system, headphones, etc. Traditionally, this has been achieved by attaching a piezoelectric transducer or pickup to the drum face. With this system, drum hits in quick succession may not be detected properly by the system because dampening of the drum head may occur so slowly that the amplitude of vibration may not change substantially from one hit to the next. Because a piezo sensor outputs a voltage proportional to the amplitude of the vibration of the drum head, and because the amplitude of vibration of the head may not change significantly from one hit to the next, including the time between hits, the drum brain may be unable to distinguish the hits. Conversely, powerful hits may result in the pedal striking the face more than once, e.g., on a rebound. In this case, a strong hit may be interpreted incorrectly as multiple hits.
One attempt to improve upon this system involves adding a second, smaller beater to the drum pedal. This second beater may be aligned with the transducer so that it strikes the transducer directly. In addition to the rebounding problem discussed above, this modification requires careful alignment of the drum pedal to ensure that the transducer is hit, making modification to the system difficult or impossible, especially during use.
What is needed is a drum pedal and/or pedal system that overcomes the drawbacks described above.